Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Game Report - Operatives of CROSSBOW

Last night saw the opening session of my Fate Core not-Agents of SHIELD game, Operatives of CROSSBOW, in which an elite-ish team of agents for the Combined Reconnaissance, Operations and Security Service: Bureau of the Otherworldly fight crime and otherworldly shenanigans.

The team: Gordon 'Gordy' Winters, the man in the van; Georgina 'Georgie' Dimes, a mob princess made good; and Elliott 'Milt' Milton, an occult research prodigy.The brief: Infiltrate a star-studded mob party and discretely plant a monitoring device in a consulting hacker's mainframe; optionally, study his 'unorthodox' security measures and photograph his client list for Interpol.

The Set-up: Georgie looked up an old acquaintance, a low-level fixer named Fred, and leaned on him to provide the invitations. With a reputation for being dangerous to know, this was easy enough.

Georgie: After all, they don't call you Drop Dead Fred for nothing.Fred: They don't call me that.Georgie: They will do.
In the requisition phase, a mechanic I added to the game as part of a reputation system, the team successfully requested a stylish handbag with a hidden pocket and a pair of camera glasses to assist them in their efforts. Georgie and Milt rented a dress, a tux and a car and headed for Corley Grange, majestic Berkshire home of Martin 'Hacker' Hayes, while Gordy parked up nearby in the van.

The Mission: At the party, Georgie presented a labradoodle puppy to the birthday girl, Tracey Hayes, and Milt spotted a set of Goetic carvings above the door which he reasoned might be the 'security measures' they'd been told to watch for.

Trouble then struck, as Georgie had a run in with a disgruntled ex, Three-Finger Harry, whom she Once Did Wrong. It emerged in the course of conversation that she once left him in the lurch, standing in a morning suit, in a bank vault, to serve five to ten years.

Harry: I'm only here now because I got out for good behaviour.Georgie: Good behaviour was never your strong suit. I'm impressed.
This did not escalate into violence, but did make Georgie the Object of Scrutiny, so Milt slipped away to locate the server room, only later realising that he had no means to break in without Georgie, who was currently getting the tour from her host.

With difficulty - although she was the object of scrutiny, by now her host was eager to please, not realising that she had swiped his access card - Georgie made her way undetected to the server room. Milt chanted at the Goetic carvings while Georgie worked the locks with the aid of Hayes' card.

Gordy: You're talking to the doors? Is that really necessary?Milt: Maybe not, but I don't want to skip it if it is. I could be, I don't know, dragged off to Hell or something.

The room is accessed and, with a lot of long-range assistance, the device planted.

Gordy: No, not that thing; the other thing!
Feeling pretty swish and with Gordy - just barely - now in control of the security systems, they decide to head for Hayes' office and the client list. En route, Milt gets distracted however, by a room full of boxes and urns and canopic jars. He opens one and feels a chill.

Milt: I think there's a problem with the air conditioning.
They don't call him Pandora for nothing.

The rest of the mission goes off without a hitch. They break into the office, search it like bosses, take pics of the client lists, opt not to try to open the safe, just in case they break their streak, and then leave with a certain swagger.

On the flight back, Gordy notices something huge and dark flitting across the moon, but the others see nothing and put it down to screen burn.